CROCODILES, ALLIGATORS, AND G A RIALS. 



381 



the order ; but the female buries her eggs — which may reach a hundred in 

 number — among leaves and other decaying vegetable matter, in order to 

 hasten the process of hatching ; and during the pairing -season the males 

 spend much of their time on land. The Chinese species feeds largely upon 

 iish. 



The typical or true crocodiles are readily distinguished from both the fore- 

 going genera by the circumstance that the upper teeth interlock with the 

 lower ones, and likewise by the fourth lower tooth generally 

 biting into a notch in the upper jaw. In the skull the nasal True Crocodiles 

 bones extend only as far forwards as the hinder margin of {Crocodilus). 

 the nostrils ; and whereas there are from seventeen to nine- 

 teen upper teeth, in the lower jaw the number is constantly fifteen. In all, 

 the under surface of the body is devoid of bony plates. Crocodiles are repre- 

 sented by about eleven species, which are distributed over the south of Asia, 

 Africa, Madagascar, the north of Australia, and Tropical America, and it is 

 not a little remarkable that one of these {Ch-ocodiliis pcyrosns) extends from 

 India to Queensland, being also found in some of the islands of Polynesia, 

 such as the Solomons and Fiji. This wide distribution is, however, readily 

 explained by this species be- 

 ing largely estuarine in its 

 habits, and taking readily to 

 salt water, whereas all the 

 others are fresh-water rep- 

 tiles. Great difference ob- 

 tains in the form of the skull 

 in the various representatives 

 of the genus, the Oriental 

 magar (C. pcdusiris) having a 

 short and broad alligator-like 

 snout, whereas in the sharp- 

 nosed crocodile (0, ameri- 

 canvs) of Central America, 

 the muzzle is comparatively 

 long, narrow, and pointed. 

 Even in this species, how- 

 ever, the short front union between the two branches of the lower jaw is 

 retained. In its still more elongated snout, the West African long-nosed 

 crocodile (0. cataphractus) forms a connecting link between the more typical 

 species and the under-mentioned garials. The species longest known is the 

 Egyptian crocodile (0. niloticus), which is one of those with a snout of medium 

 proportions. 



As a rule, the favourite haunts of crocodiles are sandbanks in rivers, where 

 they lie basking for hours in the full sun, frequently with their ponderous 

 jaws widely gaping. They appear to live for a great number of years — dur- 

 ing the whole of which they continue to grow — and often frequent the same 

 spot for long periods of time. Their ferocity is too well known to need men- 

 tion ; and many incautious bathers have lost their lives through these hideous 

 reptiles. On the Hugli it is stated that women coming down to the river's 

 edge to draw water have occasionally been seized and dragged under while 

 stooping down on the marge. Although specimens are now seldom recorded 

 of more than twelve or thirteen feet in length, there is good evidence that 

 formerly the Indian magar grew to at least eighteen feet. 



Fig. 1.- 



-NoRTH American Alligator (.4. mississip- 

 piensis). 



